Arizona Republic columnist Rob Robb notes something very disturbing about Prop 111, which would create a new office of lieutenant governor:
Under Proposition 111, the office of secretary of state is abolished. Its duties are transferred to a lieutenant governor.
Candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run separately in the primaries. But the successful nominees of each party would then run as a team in the general election. The candidate getting the most votes for governor automatically gets his party’s nominee as lieutenant governor.
But what about an independent who wants to be lieutenant governor? Sorry, out of luck. Only candidates who are part of a political party with a candidate for governor are eligible.
And what about an independent who wants to be governor? No luck for you either.
Proposition 111 says that “each nominee for the office of governor shall run on a ticket as a joint candidate in the general election with the nominee for the office of lieutenant governor from the same political party as the nominee for governor.” So, in addition to establishing the office of lieutenant governor, Proposition 111 sets up a new constitutional requirement to be a general election candidate for governor that, by definition, independents cannot fulfill.
In an era of increasing disenchantment with partisan politics, why would anyone seriously consider a governmental reform that further entrenches political parties, making them the only route to holding elected office?
Read the whole thing here.
Despite all the disgust voters now have with both political parties, it’s not like they embrace independent candidates. At the end of the day, they still end up voting for the D or the R. (Although former Democrat Ted Downing is putting that to the test in his state Senate run in Legislative District 28 this year.)
Nonetheless, do we really want to stop from being able to run for office? This is sloppy, sloppy legislation.
This article appears in Sep 16-22, 2010.
I also think the merging of the new Lieutenant governor into the governors election is sloppy. Many states have independently elected lieutenant’s.
Other states also have paired gov/ltgov tickets, on the federal model. But the purpose is similar to the federal model; the ltgov is there to do things like preside over a house of the legislature and be the standby governor. Those states also have an independent secretary of state to handle what that officer does: manage the official documentation, incorporations, licenses, etc.
This proposition apparently just renames the secretary of state office to lieutenant governor and takes away its independence.
Prop. 111 is more evidence of the unspoken truth in American politics. The political parties have become special interest groups, just like the corporations and unions they allegedly oppose. Politicians who write and propose laws to protect their turf.
As a proportion of the registered voters, Democrats have been in decline since 1940 and Republicans since 1980 (See the chart using the Sec of State’s registration figures at http://www.votedowning.com).
Prop 111, is unconstitutional. Just as the provisions in the postal code that prevent me, a nonpartisan, from using a nonprofit discount on my mailings – while the parties get this discount. The special interest is so blatant that the US Post office publication 417 even lists the Republican and Democrat parties by NAME!
And did you know that the politicians have written laws that required candidates who are not members of a party to gather almost 6 times the signatures than a Rep. or Dem. to be an independent candidate for governor (there isn’t one, of course)?
WIth nearly 1/3 of the state being independent and many Republicans leaning independent and Democrats leaning independent, Arizonans are beginning to figure this out. I did am acting accordingly.
Ted Downing
Nonpartisan candidate.